, 1887-10-23
HOW BILL NYE WORKS.

A Talk Concerning One of tho Most
Popular Funny Men of the Day.
TX. Marvel says: "a man asks me to
write something; he might as well ask
the skies to rain" Bill Nye says; "f you
want me to write just tell me to write
something and then let me alone"
He generally keeps a supply of some
twenty subjects pretty well in hand h a
can be written up on short notice. He
keeps q note book just like the rest, a
literary rag bag 'into which lots and lots
goes in, and nothing was ever yet known
to come out" He thinks there is a fortune
in store for the man who invests manu-
scripts with some property like a magnet
that by passing them over the rubbish Of
a note book Will attract TO themselves
just what belongs.
He cannot write Sin order" He has
attempted a few times to write by meas
ure, SO many words, sc much pay, such a
length, such a subject. "Why, you might
as well pack me down into my trundle
bed and tell me to sleep. l can feel the
cramp in my limbs yet" He cannot
even write under headings, as his subject,
like a stick in water, is apt to turn all
sorts of crooks and elbows before he gets
TO the bottom.
One of The Worlds staff brought him
a piece of his manuscript the other day,
his thumb resting on a spot Of it that was
bursting with laughter. f o heavens
sake, Bill, how did you ever get this
turn on that Did you sit down in cold
blood and manufacture 1t, or lie 1t come
on you all of a sudden" 1.-THE pen was
half through the joke before l saw it"
said he.
He never rewrites an article by any
chance, often interlines, crosses out or
doubles up, but the copy goes to the of
flee just that way. 1t all comes just
about as he wants it, faster than he can
write 1t. He sometimes has to stop to
spear a word which is careening about in
vacancy, but never an expression. He
must finish one article while in that par
ticular moo 1t is useless to try to re-
call it in any particular shape if inter
rupted, and he has lost much valuable
matter in this way. He intends making a
study of more continued writing, but
breads the attempt.
On his first writing he used a high desk,
but later on, finding that height ALSO
lutely necessary to composition deliber-
ately broke himself of the habit by writ
ing on his knee, which now constitutes
his desk on all ordinary occasions. He
uses a little pencil, likes a very fine pen
point. He makes the finest copy Of any
writer he knows except one. He hates
proof reading, and says n man has to suf-
fer so little nowadays by mistakes, owing
to the excellent proof work lone by the
newspaper that he had much rather suf-
fer that '~littlen than read the proof SO
"long."
Much greater facility has come to him
by practice. Also no has a Consciousness
that there is a marked Improvement in
the pith and finish of his work. In this
he is supported by the opinions of his best
friends, who are always prompt to give
helpful criticism, p" and by the distaste he
now has for his earlier efforts, some of
which are quite unpalatable to him now.
He has no fear whatever of running out"
or becoming stale, as he does not claim to
create, only to clothe old subjects Of liv-
ing interest in new form, and this can
walk side by side with humanity just as
long as it or he lives. He has written in
all only about twelve years.
He gives his best mind work to his
every day friends, saving nothing because
1t is more valuable written. Before writ
ing he was an inimitable story teller and
joke maker of hat delicious type that
shows the fun only with his eyes. The
only reason that he is less humorous now
in conversation han in his writing is on
the principle of -''turning over on the
other side to rest a weary muscle" The
humorist, as the comedian, must turn to
"the grave" for relaxation.-Fannie Ed
gar Thomas in Inter Ocean.